Japan Visa Guide

GOODNEWS!! Japan will exempt visas for Indonesian citizen next year 2015. But meanwhile you still need to apply for Japan Visa if you are going to Japan this year (2014). Based on my experience, I want to share with you about HOW TO APPLY JAPAN VISA specially for Indonesian.

Browsing for reviews and guide on how to apply Japan Visa is the first thing that I do before booking hotels/tickets and I can say that most of the review kinda gave me an impression on how intimidating the process of Japan Visa application but actually it’s quite simple.

The process is quite simple:
Make Plan -> Prepare Required Documents -> Apply at Japanese Embassy/Consulate with the jurisdiction -> Application is examined in the Embassy -> After completion of examination, go to get your passport back -> Visa issued -> enter Japan within 3 months.

Sakura Jelly by AnakJajan

1. VISA TYPE
You have to know what type of Visa that you need for your trip. Visa types:Temporary Visit Visa for Family Visits Purpose Temporary Visit Visa for Family Visits Purpose (if the inviter is Japanese Citizen living in Indonesia) Temporary Visit Visa for Friend Visit Temporary Visit Visa for Travel Purpose Frequent and Temporary Visit Visa for Travel Temporary Visit Visa for Business Purpose Frequent and Temporary Visit Visa for Business Special Visa (Student / Work / Training / Residential within a certain time period) Transit Visa

2. Requirement Documents for Visa Application
Since the main reason for visa application is to make sure that you will arrive and leaving Japan on the time noted (IMHO) so I recommend you to provide supporting documents as much as you can.
For example, I’m applying “Temporary Visit Visa for Travel Purpose” for my honeymoon, I even attach a some copies of marriage related documents to show that I really really visit Japan for holiday/honeymoon purpose for a certain period of time and by providing documents as complete as possible I’m sure it also will help the examiner to decide whether to approve your Visa or not IMHO, better safe than sorry 🙂
You can download the list of mandatory documents you need to prepare here -> http://www.id.emb-japan.go.jp/visa_listI.pdfIMPORTANT TIPS: A. Flight Ticket
One of the mandatory document is flight ticket, and not knowing my Visa will be approved or not is really driving me crazy because if I bought ticket to Japan and I don’t have approved visa then my ticket will be forfeited and you all know ticket to Japan is NOT CHEAP AT ALL.
But we have some tips for you, you need to ask for help from the travel agent to book you a flight booking (for example G*aruda just like us, because you all might know already you cannot book the budget airline for a long period of time) and print the booking document (no payment needed) for the visa applications. Later then when your visa is approved you can safely purchase flight ticket.B. Bank Account
Well, I have read some sources telling me that you need to have at least IDR 1mil-1.5mil/day in your bank account, for example if you are going to visit Japan for 10 days, you might need to have at least IDR 10-15mil in your bank account, the main purpose of this is to make sure you have the money to survive living in Japan.C. Sponsor Letter
If you are working, you need to ask for Sponsor Letter from your office to state that you are an employee from X company, visiting Japan for Travel/Business purpose for x days and will arrive & leaving Japan on the time noted.
But if you are an entrepeneur, you can write your own letter consist of your name, passport number, address, phone, job, the reason why you visit Japan and periode of visit, stating that you will come back on time noted.
And also for students, you will need to ask for “Verification of Student Status letter” from your school/campus.D. Photo
Please prepare 4.5×4.5cm photo with WHITE BACKGROUND, you can easily go to photo studio and ask for it

Lego Jajan

3. Visa Application Form
Download the form at the Japanese Embassy’s website http://www.id.emb-japan.go.jp/application2.pdf
The form actually is really simple and easy to fill.
Since I don’t have guarantor or inviter, so I leave the Guarantor & Inviter fields empty.

You also need to prepare a simple itinerary list for the visa application, you can download mine below for example.Visa Itinerary Example

You need to pay IDR 320k for single entry visa application or IDR 640k for multiple entry visa/ IDR 70k for transit visa.

Preserved Sakura

4. Bring your application form to the Embassy.
After you complete your application form and the required documents, now it’s time for you to apply it to the Japanese Embassy.
The process is really simple and fast actually, you only need to visit the embassy twice, no need to make any appointment, you just need to visit the embassy according to the working hours:Monday – Friday (except national holidays or Embassy holidays) Submission of Visa Application : 08:30 – 12:00 Paspor (result) pickup : 13:30 – 15:00 Visa processing: a minimum of four (4) working days

Basically you need to submit the visa application yourself at the counter unless you use travel agency that has been approved by the office of the Consulate General of Japan (well mostly famous or any big travel agency provide this service).
Since I’m lazy and cannot leave the office twice, I use the tour agent I mention earlier to help me bring my visa application to the embassy, it took me around 1 week to get the result and it was approved, YAYY!! I paid around IDR 425k for each visa by using travel agent’s service.
FYI, Visa applications will be processed in accordance with the Consulate of the respective jurisdictions, you can see the details below:

Sooo this is it the information about how to apply Japanese Visa for Indonesian. If you have any question, do not hesitate to leave question on the comment form below. Stay tuned on our blog, the next post of AnakJajan Japan Series will be the Ultimate Guide about Traveling to Japan, there’re sooo many things that I think you might need to know and useful for your trip to Japan, cannot wait to write about it. Let’s Travel!!

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23 thoughts on “Japan Visa Guide”

Wow it’s really hard to make a Visa. Last winter break, I’m trying to applied for Europe visa and it’s really stressful for me because so many things that we should prepared and not enough time (because I was still in Korea) but finally we get our visa! Preparing for your traveling is kinda stressful but it’s worth it when you are finally arriving at the country you’re visiting. And it’s your honeymoon as well! How sweet! I didn’t know you are married so congratulation (I know it’s a bit late but oh well).

Dear Mrs. Jajan. Nice info.. i’m planning to travel to Japan too.. but how long before my planned trip should I apply for a visa? how about you? how long did you apply your visa before your trip? Thank you 🙂

Love your website! Actually me and my future wife are going to Japan on next November, but the thing is we will getting married on 15 Nov and leaving on 18 Nov 😀
Should we be worried about not putting the marriage document? Because we re planning to make visa on October.

Ur case is similar with ours. We didn’t put any legal marriage document during applying for the visa. But we did put some copies of document to show them that we are going to get married on xxx date, for example the marriage preparation course certificate from church.
Happy wedding for u and ur soon to be wife 🙂

Hi Mrs. Jajan, may I ask whether you translated the documents to English/Japanese or you just let them be in Bahasa Indonesia? Having the same case here, plan to go on honeymoon to Japan right after getting married so I need some info whether to translate the documents. Thanks in advance!

Hi mrs. Jajan,
I need an advice.. since this is my first time trip to Japan.
I will be going to Tokyo on Dec 10th 2015, back to Jkt on 18th From Osaka.
Do i need to buy JR Pass? Is it worthy?.
Or better for me to buy 1 way Shinkanzen (Tokyo – Osaka) mix with Passmo/Suica?.

Hii, Buying JR pass or not depends on how often you will use it to explore from one town to another. You have to remember by using JR pass you can only use train at JR STation but not in Toei & Metro station. You can try calculate how much you will spend on JR Pass compared to shinkansen ticket + pasmo/suica using help of Hyperdia website. Just simply simulate the route you will explore and total the cost. Have fun 🙂

Hello Mrs. Jajan, I have a quick question about the visa application form.
Do you know for who supposedly the Guarantor column for? is it really okay to leave it empty? because I had an info from my friend that we supposedly fill that column with our own name if we pay the trip for ourselves, but I’m not really sure about that. Thank you 🙂

Hmm I think it is possible, because the last two times, our documents were drop by our travel agent. I read on Embassy of Japan in Indonesia’s website, it says that you can delegate your family or friends to do that. You can call Tel. +62-21 3192-4308 (hunting system) for more info 🙂